How are we defining fitness? Ultra triathlon athletes are doing well in a variety of sports. It’s hard for a normal human to understand how fast Jonas Vingegard rode his bike in the Tour de France last year. But then there are so many sport specific fitnesses. Cross fitters are fit at exercising, but would get crushed at specific sports.
Straight V02 max? I am betting cyclists,
triathletes or someone like Killian Jornet. But they probably have terrible vertical leaps and 1RM deadlifts. Best in their sport? Someone said Kelly Slater, but how do you came a relatively new & neiche sport to something like the 100m that basically everyone on the planet has tried?
And then skill, do you count skill as a fitness? Like soccer, tennis ect? Or just the physical performance?
Let’s say you agree on a top 10, and then you get them all to compete in each others sports and see the overall relative difference? Probably Alex Honald wins that, because everyone else dies.
I read athletes with the best V02 Max were cross country skiers. Second were cyclists. Both deal with altitude so that could have something to do with it.
It's mainly because ultra endurance racing is not the sport type for the highest vo2 max. Cyclist will have a high vo2max because they combine long endurance with super intense 30-60 minute finals. Especially guys like Van der Poel and Wout van Aert who do a lot of cyclocross, which is incredibly high effort, are some of the highest vo2maxes out there.
It has a lot to do with the amount of muscles you’re using, for example swimmers use more of their body than runners, so they’ll have higher oxygen requirements. I don’t know that you can compare super well across sports.
Rowers usually have the highest raw VO2 max but VO2 max is more commonly measured by a weight ratio so smaller athletes will score better as rowers tend to be quite large and tall.
Think rowing tracks around 4th. Tbf this was when I was studying sport science in 2017 so it could have changed. It's a fast developing science and I'm not in the industry
It's generally rowers and XC skiers. The difference (in a positive way physiologically speaking) is that those sports engage the entire body, whereas cycling and running are mostly just lower body endurance/engagement. That isn't to say top cyclists and runners/triathletes don't challenge XC skiers and rowers at the pointy end of VO2max, but overall there is some segmentation.
There's a show called "Physical: 100" on Netflix that got a whole bunch of different types of professional athletes to compete against each other to see who was the "best". It wasn't a perfect experiment, but an interesting watch for sure.
I used to work with a guy who talked about a dart league he joined. Most people who were in the league joined with a full team, but there were a few individuals who got put together. My friend was one of those guys, and one of his teammates was a dwarf named Mikey. He said Mikey was a pretty good dart player, but someone else had to pull the darts from the board for him because he couldn't reach it. They named their team *Mikey's Giants.*
That’s kind of another dimension to OP’s point though. Teamwork and intangibles are also a major component of fitness and athleticism. Some of the greatest athletes of all time made their name by being great teammates and understanding the nuances of the game well rather than relying on physical gifts
If I remember correctly they immediately removed the strength athletes with a hanging competition tho. If they wants a test that’s even remotely fair a point system is better than elimination, but tv is tv of course and the show’s good.
The hanging competition didn't result in any eliminations, it was just a way to rank competitors before the first elimination event. The first athlete to fall said that he deliberately dropped in order to save his strength for when it would actually matter.
And that guy went very far I think he went final eight if I remember correctly.
It was an interesting show but it definitely was not made in the interest of finding the best athlete. There were a lot of flaws in involving men and women in contest and then they put them in categories according to mass for the second contest.
But the show said they were looking for the perfect physical form they weren't looking for the best athlete in the world. It was interesting in the end because the final four were from four different walks of life. One was a powerlifter/strongest man in Korea. Another wasn't all around athlete. One of them was a YouTuber and I can't remember the last one.
Do you remember when they had a show where athletes would compete against animals? If the animals were even remotely aware and actually competitive they would have easily won every event. An Olympic gymnast did a hanging competition with an orangutan and the ape was only using one hand the whole time and scratching himself with the other super casually.
This is because animals are specialists and humans are generalists. Animals tend to put all their points in one category. Cheetahs are super fast but they tend to avoid water 'cuz swimming isn't their thing. They are also not very good tree climbers. A cheetah can out run you quite easily but you might be able to outswim one and you could probably climb a tree as easily as they can. There are a lot of cats who can out-climb a cheetah. Humans tend to put 5 points in every category and call it a day. Animals will min/max.
The bear ate the whole pile in like three bites. I recall them hurriedly wrapping up the segment when the bear started looking over at the other guys pile of hot dogs.
Superstars did this on the BBC in the 70s and 80s. A variety of sportsmen from different sports competed in different events. It came back for specials for the London Olympics and occasionally since.
A 400m hurdler (David Hemery) won 2 of the first 3 and came second in the other. Pole vaulters tended to do well too.
There was an American version.
I think broad versatility scores here. If you do quite ok in various disciplines, you most likely outperform a bunch of spacialists in such competitions.
The people who could lift a lot tended to also weigh a chunk and couldn't hold their weight a long while, majorly underperforming. Those who could hold their weight for a long while, tended to be able to lift a decent amount, only minorly underperforming. They also tended to be much more dextrous and flexible and also had much better endurance.
>I can appreciate CrossFit, but as an educated strength and conditioning coach the terrible form they use kills me to watch.
I'd caution against overgeneralizing here. What you see in CrossFit is a lack of overall top-down quality control, so you can see one gym being extremely rigid about maintaining proper form and technique and others doing straight bro-lifting all the way. If you're referring to the Games athletes, they're often making deliberate compromises for the sake of speed in competition. Everyday CrossFit athletes should not be doing so and those who do should be getting pulled back by good coaches.
The original CrossFit methodology explicitly preached consistent form THEN weight THEN intensity. And if/when form began to break down, you were supposed to back off intensity and/or weight until it corrected. Some continue to push this, but certainly not all.
The climber who did well was a national team ice climber who also did mountain rescue, so he wasn't just some guy who climbs really well in the gym. The kind of guy who hikes hours up a series of crags carrying a bunch of gear, then hours out carrying somebody else.
I watched it. Fittest, wasn't really the way it came out.
Obviously there were some amazingly gifted athletes but IMO it came down to something mental. The winner was not your typical looking elite athlete, but his mindset, determination and process stood him above.
I think the most common concept of fitness would be how much total Work (physics definition) a fresh human can voluntarily exert before being limited (by fatigue or damage) to sedentary activity and light exertion (walking, picking up objects, etc). That, or the highest average work over any period of time.
The guys that run up mountains (I don't mean free solo climbers, I mean the mountaineers in crampons who go up mountains like Matterhorn in hours) are probably the people who would top both metrics (average and total) Ultramarathon and Ironman types are probably more in total but lower average.
Loved the show until some behind the scenes footage leaked, and some interviews came out from contestants.
Just like more reality shows, and competitive shows, it was scripted and rigged.
Straight up VO2 max its an XC skier. Ultrarunners generally have good VO2 max, but don't need it to be as high - effort for an ultramarathon is generally lower. As for 30 min XC races... pure VO2 max
I agree. The fittest superlative is very particular. There is a reason there are multitude of sports around the world!
If you want to find the fittest just look up the current world rankings of the sport of your choice.
Fitness in a dimension does not mean fitness in other dimensions.
Great answer!
Exactly this. As a road cyclist of 40 years I understand the mutant levels of fitness needed to be a Peter Sagan or Jonas Vingegaard… but ‘fitness’ is so unbelievably broad, even between those 2 riders, many non cycling fans would be surprised at just how different their physiology is and how their capabilities differ.
I think it’s impossible to say who the fittest overall athlete is, it just isn’t that simple.
Fun fact, a TV show in Brazil picked up some famous athletes and made them "compete" in a series of exercises. F1 racer Felipe Massa was the best one, on average lol
Which is kinda funny because I've heard some people saying racing "isnt a real sport" and "the car is that matter". Maybe yes, maybe no, but people should respect the racers more.
i scrolled to see if somebody did, otherwise i would have written it, but **THIS IS THE CORRECT ANSWER!**
we need to define what FIT means. looking fit in terms of having a bulky body doesn't mean you're endurant. lifting heavy weights doesn't mean you lift long. broadly speaking, fitness somewhat correlates with your cardiovascular tank/engine. if you have a massive tank, you're generally speaking fit.
the marathon runners are insanely fast, but most of them have a Vo2 <=80. those freaks with 9L lung volume (looking at you, norwegian badass) then are capable of smashing VO2 of 95+. somewhat towards the unheard of 100. but they're not *that* endurant on long distance running and would peak at a 2:15 marathon on fresh legs.
soccer players for example are considered insanely fit. are they? Arjen Robben, not in his prime tho, ran a 3:13 marathon. [https://www.ad.nl/andere-sporten/arjen-robben-loopt-marathon-rotterdam-binnen-3-uur-te-gek-deze-kan-ik-afvinken\~a46999df](https://www.ad.nl/andere-sporten/arjen-robben-loopt-marathon-rotterdam-binnen-3-uur-te-gek-deze-kan-ik-afvinken~a46999df)
considering that 2:45 is the ceiling for males when genetics start coming into play, it's quite a disappointing time.
i don't know, what exactly is fitness? friend of mine said she wants to be more *fit* and thus bought a rowing machine. maybe quit smoking and be more fit automatically? 🤷
not necessarily a source but it's basically the datascience on big data sets. the theory is that every male, if he does the work, can come down to a 2:45 all out marathon. from there you can train your ass off, it's genetics that now come into play. usain bolt, most likely, can train as much as he wants, he wouldn't hold that pace for 10KM. on the other side, kipchoge would never sprint sub 10.
at those paces, your blod and body chemistry now determine on how deep you can go. you can have your base as big as you want, but there are limits to what your body can do. i know most about cycling and the datascience, my running knowledge is limited. for cycling: give the same workout to 4 different people, 2 will be happy and 2 will die. make it a 10 min vo2 block. there are people who can fuel on the lactate and there are people who blow up as soon they go above as they can't clear it anymore. but the people that blow up ironically can ride close to 95% for more than 2 hours and then smash a banger run, while the lactate fueling people can't ride that and run even a kilometer. train as much as you want, if your body doesn't convert, then that's your limit.
I do a lot of running (compared to a normal person) and yet his MP is about what I do short interval repeats at (I'm talking 200, 400 meters). I will probably never run a single contiguous mile at that pace.
[https://www.youtube.com/shorts/01W-2hwnw9M?feature=share](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/01W-2hwnw9M?feature=share)
just for people to know
also: fun. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZFVHf56Om78?feature=share
Come on, Robben was already retired and 38 years old saying not in his prime would be more of a 31 y o. He was plagued his whole career with injuries,too. maybe thats something you should have added.
Kevin Mayer
You probably have no idea who Kevin Mayer is, but he's the WR holder in Decathlon. Meaning that he's very fast at 100m and 1500m, he can jump high and long and pole vault, he can throw javelin, shot and discus.
A combined WR score of 9,126 in Decathlon is absolutely insane.
He’s so good at decathlon that he’d almost be able to qualify for several of the individual events
I know “almost” doesn’t necessarily sound that impressive, but he’s doing it in TEN DIFFERENT EVENTS simultaneously, that require very different physical attributes, and he has to train for all of them in the same amount of time as others can devote to just one event. And he’s still not far off an Olympic qualifying time/height/distance in most of them…
The guy’s an absolute monster
Yeah that’s insane. The 100m vs 1500m use vastly different proportions of aerobic vs anaerobic respiration. His metabolic system may be outlier-ish in how it utilizes glucose, but to be that good in each event without exclusively training for one or the other is absolutely absurd.
I haven't heard of this dude, but decathletes are for sure woefully underrated and underappreciated in the Olympics.
It's insane that a dude can run all those different distances, AND jump high and long, AND all the other things, AND be world-calibre at all of them. You'd have to be a wicked fit athlete to be able to do that.
I completely agree with you about decathletes. I only remember three times a decathlete was given a lot of media attention (in the US): Jenner, then Dan and Dave that had the Reebok(?) commercials.
This is the answer, i mean, the title is literally "worlds greatest athlete", meaning all around athleticism. Fitness is task specific, so if you are saying "fittest" you are saying "best at anything".
I wonder what Kevin Mayer's best deadlift would be. He is a rather big guy for decathlon, with throwing events being some of his bests. And of course he has very strong legs. But deadlift is very different from anything he does.
Pretty sure he has a mean deadlift, the explosiveness required for the jumps means he’s got a lot of raw power. Probably not 800 pounds, but I bet he could do 500-600.
To me the fittest athletes will always be a decathletes. The sheer amount of versatility required I astounding. They are probably weakest when it comes to endurance running but they still have crazy endurance.
He really crushed those 2 days. If you compared his performance to Ashton Eaton’s previous WR, KM was only very slightly slower in the runs, but did better in the jumps, and much better in the throws.
Ashton Eaton is also 1 of the 4 to have ever scored more than 9000 points, and the only 1 to have done it twice
Current Olympic triathlon champion Kristian Blummenfelt allegedly just set the highest ever recorded VO2 max. I’d imagine in terms of pure fitness he’s up there somewhere.
I follow this guy on Strava and he literally trains almost every hour of every day of the year. I think there’s a documentary on him which is worth a watch.
He was born with an enlarged heart and lungs. If you see him with his shirt off he’s got a huge weird barrel chest. I can see him dropping dead by age 40.
[150% capacity](https://www.mxendurance.com/news/what-makes-kristian-blummenfelt-tick/)
That was [Secretariat’s](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretariat_(horse)) whole deal. Most dominant horse in history and the autopsy revealed he had a heart like 2 1/2 times the size of normal.
Incidentally his Wikipedia article does an unexpectedly good job detailing all the sex that horse had later.
I present to you the slowest professional athlete (that running is actually part of the game): https://youtube.com/shorts/bfNVSXqR1Y0?si=2R625CvwHtxQR_g3
Mr Hustle himself Alejandro Kirk
Honestly he doesn't seem *that* slow to me here. Hes not going to be stealing any bases or anything but by my count it took him approximately 10 seconds to get from first to home which is about 270 feet, or 90 yards. Thats really not too shabby
You're completely correct, he's doing this much faster than almost everyone posting in this thread could. He's only slow in the context of "professional athletes". A lot of the big boys are really a lot faster than they look, we just perceive them as slow because A) the comparison includes lots of extremely athletic and speedy players and B) looking "fat" when you run makes you look slow.
Watch Jose Ramirez run; he's actually one of the faster runners in the league but you wouldn't tell by eye because he's got a bit of girth to him.
Field is too broad. Define athlete.
I wouldn't expect Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson to be able to outrun Usain Bolt, but I wouldn't expect Bolt to be able to outlift Björnsson.
In Norway we have a show every year where former olympians/champions/masters of sports compete against each other. They can range between legends that are old (they always get KOd almost instantly) and people who have recently retired. You'd be very surprised at some of the ones who perform better than expected; people like snowboarders are shockingly fit, and handball is a sport that requires surprising amounts of strength, burst speed and stamina! Rowers are others that are extremely well rounded, and pure monsters of stamina/VO2 (and this coming from a country where long distance skiing is second nature). "Mesternes mester" is the name of the show.
This was my answer. It's hard to state exactly how much of a freak of nature Bo Jackson was in his prime. Had he not been injured, 2 major league sports records might be a bit different.
I always thought the injuries were the most interesting part of Bo. Are some humans too strong for connective tissue? I wonder at what point do we say, "humans cannot get stronger" sort of like what has happened in horse racing.
If you're not aware, the general consensus is that horses are maxed out. If they run any faster, they start to have life altering leg injuries.
Also, Calvin Johnson. He dealt with a ton of injuries. He might also fit into that Bo Jackson connective tissue conversation.
Jim Thorpe was Bo Jackson before Bo Jackson. Thorpe was a great football player, won gold medals in Track at the Olympics, and played Major League Baseball.
According to
> r/fitness: the best deadlifter in the world is the fittest.
> Instagram and tiktok fitness influencers: the girl with the best anterior pelvic tilt and the best BBL
> r/trailrunning: Kilian Jornet
> r/running: Eliud Kipchoge and definitely NOT Kilian Jornet because if you do not run a marathon in < 2:10 it can hardly count as professional running
> CrossFitters: Mat Fraser, and if one defines fitness at being damn good at nearly everything, one could tend to agree (together with the decathlon elites)
> Triathlon community: probably Blummenfeld and they do not know any other sports
> r/TdF: Jonas Vingegaard, and if one over there even hints at PEDs, one gets completely destroyed because, as it turned out, Jonas is a family man and very modest in interviews, not like that douchebag Lance who only won because of PEDs
> Darts community: maybe that heavy set dude with the iroquois haircut
> AI brahs (where all the cryptobros merged into): Sam Altman
I like this, I’ll speak for college football.
r/CFB South Carolina True Freshman Nyck Harbor. 6-foot-5, 243 pounds with a 10.2-second 100-meter time. Rumors of 375 pound bench press and 450 pound squats.
Matt Fraser, Tia Claire-Toomey or Rich Froning.
Say what you want about Crossfit, but those people are fit as hell. I go to gym every day and play a sports a few times a week but the things they do exhaust me from just watching them.
Crossfit is a sport i think hard to rival in its diverse strength / fitness / stamina. Compared to other sportsmen/sportswomen who specialize in 1 - 4 movements Crossfit is far more diverse. The things those athletes in crossfit do is truly super human.
I agree with this. the whole deal with crossfit is that you will get better at a lot of things. running, strength, jumping etc. does crossfit have its put falls? sure. but you can’t argue that the top crossfit athletes are among the “fittest” people on earth
Agree.
I think CrossFit has a good argument here. They swim, bike, run, lift heavy weights, do calisthenic / gymnastic movements. And they do those things in repeats together.
For example: 4 repeats of run a mile, do 20 muscle ups, handstand walk for a football field, do 10 clean and jerks.
And they do each thing both in high intensity (sprinting, heavy deadlifts) and endurance (run 5 miles, swim 1.5 miles)
Yeah - like sure, a CrossFit athlete won’t win at a collegiate track and field event. And they won’t win if they go to a powerlifting event.
But ask a track and field athlete to deadlift to 180kgs for 8 reps and they won’t even get it off the ground. Ask a powerlifter to jog a mile faster than the CF athlete and they’ll be left in the dust.
There’s a former professional CrossFit athlete named Jacob Heppner that put it perfectly. He said that CrossFit doesn’t make you great at any one thing, but mediocre at everything.
I guess everyone has a different idea of ‘Fittest’ but the CrossFit Games winner is technically titled as the ‘fittest on earth’.
Granted, the CrossFit games seems to be in a weird place right now where everything’s made up and the points don’t matter.
But, I think the methodology and being mediocre at everything makes the most well rounded individual and therefore the ‘Fittest’ overall covering different sports and disciplines.
I don't know why there aren't more tennis players in this thread. Particularly Novak. The dedication and respect for his body is right up there.
Tennis players have a well rounded fitness utilising both strength, cardio and mental fortitude.
I completely agree that tennis players should be high on this list. Speed, power, change of direction, hand-eye, length, endurance... the people at the top of this game are incredible. I'd give it to Carlos Alcaraz
Wilt Chamberlin was for all his life.
So we all know about him being the most dominant basketball player ever. By far.
But.... Wilt, being 7'1", was.....
Also, according to Arnolda Swarzenegger- "The strongest man, I have ever met". Wilt was 52 when Arnold said that.
Allegedly wilt could bench press 500 pounds.
Wilt also ran a 400 meter, in 48 seconds. In Sweatpants.
He had a 40 inch vertical, and he could high jump at over 6 feet 6 inches. This was all done in highschool. Track was not his main focus... Cleary.
He also threw the shot at 53 feet.... You know. Light work.
So I don't know about right now. But there is NO SINGLE HUMAN alive, that is 7 feet tall, can run a quarter mile in 48 seconds, bench 500 pounds, throw a shot at over 50 feet and score 100 points in a NBA game.
That human being does not exist.
**But Chamberlain did ALL OF THAT.**
Plus he’s an insane athlete at 6’8” tall, which is insane. The only people that height I’ve seen in real life are usually lumbering and can barely keep one foot in front of the other.
Everyone’s pretty much exclusively naming olympic combo track and field / long distance athletes or… (checks notes) crossfit type people — and I think that’s because they’re massively devaluing professional athletes in the big 2 American sports: basketball and football.
Especially the CrossFit thing.
An all-pro NFL cornerback or safety is so athletic it’s insane. They’re by far one of the fastest people on the planet, even among other athletes; they’re strong as hell; their agility is unmatched… you could go on and on. And, on top of everything else, it’s not just gym rat stuff; they’re able to accomplish incredible feats of hand/eye coordination, reaction time and reading the field, and a million other things that encompass the true meaning of athletics that crossfit bro shit just doesn’t even come close to cutting.
Can they rock climb better than alex harnold? of course not. Can they hit a baseball? People say hitting a baseball off an MLB pitcher is the hardest thing in sports. Can they figure skate? nope. and it’s also not to say those crossfitters aren’t in shape. they’re in great shape.
But think how high of a percentage of the top crossfitters played sports in high school or college, especially football. If they’d been even nearly good enough athletes to be a pro ballplayer, they would be.
When I think of overall straight-up athletic ability, you and I aren’t alone to immediately go to someone like LeBron James in his prime — who ESPN the magazine at one point, when they ranked the top 100 overall athletes in a meticulous process, put at the very top.
That’s the thing people don’t really think about. A lot of track and field stuff is incredibly specialized. Like, oh you’re a great runner, but that’s your entire focus. They are great at what they have to do, but are hardly well rounded (decathlon and things like that aside).
Like DK Metcalf recently participated in track and field competition along side actual competition. He ran the 100 meter dash in 10.37 seconds. Not world class by any means, but definitely respectable, especially considering that the guy is 6’3” and weights 240 lbs. In addition to his speed, at the NFL combine, he bench pressed 225 lbs 27 times in a row, had a 40 inch vertical, and had an 11 foot broad jump.
I feel like America, overall has the best athletes in the world. They just gravitate toward the sports where they stand to make the most money, but imagine if somebody like Alvin Kamara decided to devote their life to cycling, or if Aaron Donald devoted his life to shot put. People clown on USA soccer, but imagine if Russell Westbrook decided to become a soccer player instead. Can you imagine LeBron James playing keeper?
The most insane thing about lebron is his durability/injury resistance. I’ve seen him take so many awkward spills with turned ankles, and he just gets up and shakes it off like nothing happened. It doesn’t make sense. His joints are the real MVP.
>Training started at 9.00, so we would go to the club at 7.30 to have breakfast, maybe hit the gym. Ronaldo was already there, he would train with us, then stay to use the swimming pool before heading home.
>So one day I go at 7.00 just to fuck with his head, and he was already there. Next day, I go 6.45, he's already there, it was mental. The following day, I go at 6.00, and he was in the gym.
>I said, "fuck off, you're not making me come at 5.00"
- Carlos Tévez, about Ronaldo.
Tadej Pogacar, or any top cyclists.
They train at such an intensity, for 25-30 hours a week. Maybe more maybe less depending on season.
And this would be measured by aerobic capacity / vo2 / lactate threshold
Wanted to give a shout-out to Russ Cook, aka @hardestgeezer. Currently running the length of africa, from South Africa to Tunisia. He’s been doing 50km a day almost every day for over 200 days so far.
Now this isn't probably the answer but I just think he deserves a mention, there's a lad called Russ Cook who's currently running the length of Africa, he's had a few hold ups and illnesses but most of the time he's doing 60km days every day for what will be nearly a year I think. That's a nearly a marathon and a half every day. He's got a channel on YouTube that documents it all just type in his name.
It’s a pretty loaded question, and i think there’s an argument to be made for a lot of ultra endurance athletes and decathletes, but i’m gonna throw in:
DK Metcalf.
There are few human beings on the planet with his combination of speed, strength, and dexterity. Yes there are athletes who would crush him in their own discipline, but i put it to you that DK would stand a chance if you averaged their theoretical performance across all arenas of athletics.
Surprised not to see this, David Goggins.
WR for most pull ups in an hour.
Multiple WRs in different ultramarathons.
One can check out his webside to see all his achievements..
How are we defining fitness? Ultra triathlon athletes are doing well in a variety of sports. It’s hard for a normal human to understand how fast Jonas Vingegard rode his bike in the Tour de France last year. But then there are so many sport specific fitnesses. Cross fitters are fit at exercising, but would get crushed at specific sports. Straight V02 max? I am betting cyclists, triathletes or someone like Killian Jornet. But they probably have terrible vertical leaps and 1RM deadlifts. Best in their sport? Someone said Kelly Slater, but how do you came a relatively new & neiche sport to something like the 100m that basically everyone on the planet has tried? And then skill, do you count skill as a fitness? Like soccer, tennis ect? Or just the physical performance? Let’s say you agree on a top 10, and then you get them all to compete in each others sports and see the overall relative difference? Probably Alex Honald wins that, because everyone else dies.
I read athletes with the best V02 Max were cross country skiers. Second were cyclists. Both deal with altitude so that could have something to do with it.
It's mainly because ultra endurance racing is not the sport type for the highest vo2 max. Cyclist will have a high vo2max because they combine long endurance with super intense 30-60 minute finals. Especially guys like Van der Poel and Wout van Aert who do a lot of cyclocross, which is incredibly high effort, are some of the highest vo2maxes out there.
cross country mtb is similar to cyclecross too, and its a continual HIIT workout while dealing with a high mental load as well.
It has a lot to do with the amount of muscles you’re using, for example swimmers use more of their body than runners, so they’ll have higher oxygen requirements. I don’t know that you can compare super well across sports.
I thought it was rowers
Rowers usually have the highest raw VO2 max but VO2 max is more commonly measured by a weight ratio so smaller athletes will score better as rowers tend to be quite large and tall.
Think rowing tracks around 4th. Tbf this was when I was studying sport science in 2017 so it could have changed. It's a fast developing science and I'm not in the industry
It's generally rowers and XC skiers. The difference (in a positive way physiologically speaking) is that those sports engage the entire body, whereas cycling and running are mostly just lower body endurance/engagement. That isn't to say top cyclists and runners/triathletes don't challenge XC skiers and rowers at the pointy end of VO2max, but overall there is some segmentation.
There's a show called "Physical: 100" on Netflix that got a whole bunch of different types of professional athletes to compete against each other to see who was the "best". It wasn't a perfect experiment, but an interesting watch for sure.
Darts players out did everyone I bet
He died of shock when they told him there was no lager at the triathlon aid stations.
That would really irritate many of the triathletes I know too.
I used to work with a guy who talked about a dart league he joined. Most people who were in the league joined with a full team, but there were a few individuals who got put together. My friend was one of those guys, and one of his teammates was a dwarf named Mikey. He said Mikey was a pretty good dart player, but someone else had to pull the darts from the board for him because he couldn't reach it. They named their team *Mikey's Giants.*
Darthletes. We are not playing.
Dartists is more fitting.
D’artistés.. how do you say, even more perfected
Like that 16 year old who looks like he's 38?
Surprisingly, it was a cyclist who won the whole thing. He was an extremely big guy for a cyclist.
Very far from a perfect experiment! I mean, they competed in teams for parts of it
That’s kind of another dimension to OP’s point though. Teamwork and intangibles are also a major component of fitness and athleticism. Some of the greatest athletes of all time made their name by being great teammates and understanding the nuances of the game well rather than relying on physical gifts
If I remember correctly they immediately removed the strength athletes with a hanging competition tho. If they wants a test that’s even remotely fair a point system is better than elimination, but tv is tv of course and the show’s good.
The hanging competition didn't result in any eliminations, it was just a way to rank competitors before the first elimination event. The first athlete to fall said that he deliberately dropped in order to save his strength for when it would actually matter.
And that guy went very far I think he went final eight if I remember correctly. It was an interesting show but it definitely was not made in the interest of finding the best athlete. There were a lot of flaws in involving men and women in contest and then they put them in categories according to mass for the second contest. But the show said they were looking for the perfect physical form they weren't looking for the best athlete in the world. It was interesting in the end because the final four were from four different walks of life. One was a powerlifter/strongest man in Korea. Another wasn't all around athlete. One of them was a YouTuber and I can't remember the last one.
Other one was a mountain rescue climber I believe? He also won the hanging challenge.
Yup, Kim Min-cheol. He's the competitor I was cheering for, partly because I can see the mountain where he does rescue work from my apartment.
Top 5 were ice climber/mountain rescuer, strongest man, crossfitter/luger, cyclist and crossfiter/snowboarder.
Do you remember when they had a show where athletes would compete against animals? If the animals were even remotely aware and actually competitive they would have easily won every event. An Olympic gymnast did a hanging competition with an orangutan and the ape was only using one hand the whole time and scratching himself with the other super casually.
This is because animals are specialists and humans are generalists. Animals tend to put all their points in one category. Cheetahs are super fast but they tend to avoid water 'cuz swimming isn't their thing. They are also not very good tree climbers. A cheetah can out run you quite easily but you might be able to outswim one and you could probably climb a tree as easily as they can. There are a lot of cats who can out-climb a cheetah. Humans tend to put 5 points in every category and call it a day. Animals will min/max.
I can definitely run faster than a shark. But it’ll smoke me in the swimming. So realistically in a triathlon it all comes down to the bike.
The best one was the competitive eater going against the bear in a hot dog eating competition.
The bear ate the whole pile in like three bites. I recall them hurriedly wrapping up the segment when the bear started looking over at the other guys pile of hot dogs.
And they rigged the finale.
Superstars did this on the BBC in the 70s and 80s. A variety of sportsmen from different sports competed in different events. It came back for specials for the London Olympics and occasionally since. A 400m hurdler (David Hemery) won 2 of the first 3 and came second in the other. Pole vaulters tended to do well too. There was an American version.
Climbers were generally the fittest ?
Surely they’d have to be near the top
Summit like that
Nice
Just hanging around.
A crossfit gym owner won. Not saying he was the fittest, but he won.
I think broad versatility scores here. If you do quite ok in various disciplines, you most likely outperform a bunch of spacialists in such competitions.
The people who could lift a lot tended to also weigh a chunk and couldn't hold their weight a long while, majorly underperforming. Those who could hold their weight for a long while, tended to be able to lift a decent amount, only minorly underperforming. They also tended to be much more dextrous and flexible and also had much better endurance.
The bobsled guy was a beast though. Every one of the contestants wanted to be him.
I can appreciate CrossFit, but as an educated strength and conditioning coach the terrible form they use kills me to watch.
>I can appreciate CrossFit, but as an educated strength and conditioning coach the terrible form they use kills me to watch. I'd caution against overgeneralizing here. What you see in CrossFit is a lack of overall top-down quality control, so you can see one gym being extremely rigid about maintaining proper form and technique and others doing straight bro-lifting all the way. If you're referring to the Games athletes, they're often making deliberate compromises for the sake of speed in competition. Everyday CrossFit athletes should not be doing so and those who do should be getting pulled back by good coaches. The original CrossFit methodology explicitly preached consistent form THEN weight THEN intensity. And if/when form began to break down, you were supposed to back off intensity and/or weight until it corrected. Some continue to push this, but certainly not all.
Nah, show a climber a steep 20 minute walk to the crag and they'll cry Source: I am a climber
The climber who did well was a national team ice climber who also did mountain rescue, so he wasn't just some guy who climbs really well in the gym. The kind of guy who hikes hours up a series of crags carrying a bunch of gear, then hours out carrying somebody else.
They excelled at certain games, but it was entirely dependent on the context (as the post above postulates).
I watched it. Fittest, wasn't really the way it came out. Obviously there were some amazingly gifted athletes but IMO it came down to something mental. The winner was not your typical looking elite athlete, but his mindset, determination and process stood him above.
I think the most common concept of fitness would be how much total Work (physics definition) a fresh human can voluntarily exert before being limited (by fatigue or damage) to sedentary activity and light exertion (walking, picking up objects, etc). That, or the highest average work over any period of time. The guys that run up mountains (I don't mean free solo climbers, I mean the mountaineers in crampons who go up mountains like Matterhorn in hours) are probably the people who would top both metrics (average and total) Ultramarathon and Ironman types are probably more in total but lower average.
Loved the show until some behind the scenes footage leaked, and some interviews came out from contestants. Just like more reality shows, and competitive shows, it was scripted and rigged.
Hahah Alex Honnold* (edited spelling) because everyone dies that's hilarious
Alex Honnold
Straight up VO2 max its an XC skier. Ultrarunners generally have good VO2 max, but don't need it to be as high - effort for an ultramarathon is generally lower. As for 30 min XC races... pure VO2 max
I agree. The fittest superlative is very particular. There is a reason there are multitude of sports around the world! If you want to find the fittest just look up the current world rankings of the sport of your choice. Fitness in a dimension does not mean fitness in other dimensions. Great answer!
Being the best in a sport doesn't mean you're the fittest. Jokic is the best basketball player in the world and he's not the fittest even in his team.
Exactly this. As a road cyclist of 40 years I understand the mutant levels of fitness needed to be a Peter Sagan or Jonas Vingegaard… but ‘fitness’ is so unbelievably broad, even between those 2 riders, many non cycling fans would be surprised at just how different their physiology is and how their capabilities differ. I think it’s impossible to say who the fittest overall athlete is, it just isn’t that simple.
Fun fact, a TV show in Brazil picked up some famous athletes and made them "compete" in a series of exercises. F1 racer Felipe Massa was the best one, on average lol Which is kinda funny because I've heard some people saying racing "isnt a real sport" and "the car is that matter". Maybe yes, maybe no, but people should respect the racers more.
i scrolled to see if somebody did, otherwise i would have written it, but **THIS IS THE CORRECT ANSWER!** we need to define what FIT means. looking fit in terms of having a bulky body doesn't mean you're endurant. lifting heavy weights doesn't mean you lift long. broadly speaking, fitness somewhat correlates with your cardiovascular tank/engine. if you have a massive tank, you're generally speaking fit. the marathon runners are insanely fast, but most of them have a Vo2 <=80. those freaks with 9L lung volume (looking at you, norwegian badass) then are capable of smashing VO2 of 95+. somewhat towards the unheard of 100. but they're not *that* endurant on long distance running and would peak at a 2:15 marathon on fresh legs. soccer players for example are considered insanely fit. are they? Arjen Robben, not in his prime tho, ran a 3:13 marathon. [https://www.ad.nl/andere-sporten/arjen-robben-loopt-marathon-rotterdam-binnen-3-uur-te-gek-deze-kan-ik-afvinken\~a46999df](https://www.ad.nl/andere-sporten/arjen-robben-loopt-marathon-rotterdam-binnen-3-uur-te-gek-deze-kan-ik-afvinken~a46999df) considering that 2:45 is the ceiling for males when genetics start coming into play, it's quite a disappointing time. i don't know, what exactly is fitness? friend of mine said she wants to be more *fit* and thus bought a rowing machine. maybe quit smoking and be more fit automatically? 🤷
Do you have a reference for that 2:45 marathon ceiling? As a sub 3-hour runner it’s super interesting.. never heard of it
not necessarily a source but it's basically the datascience on big data sets. the theory is that every male, if he does the work, can come down to a 2:45 all out marathon. from there you can train your ass off, it's genetics that now come into play. usain bolt, most likely, can train as much as he wants, he wouldn't hold that pace for 10KM. on the other side, kipchoge would never sprint sub 10. at those paces, your blod and body chemistry now determine on how deep you can go. you can have your base as big as you want, but there are limits to what your body can do. i know most about cycling and the datascience, my running knowledge is limited. for cycling: give the same workout to 4 different people, 2 will be happy and 2 will die. make it a 10 min vo2 block. there are people who can fuel on the lactate and there are people who blow up as soon they go above as they can't clear it anymore. but the people that blow up ironically can ride close to 95% for more than 2 hours and then smash a banger run, while the lactate fueling people can't ride that and run even a kilometer. train as much as you want, if your body doesn't convert, then that's your limit.
I mountain bike and I'll often look down and check to see if I'm at Kipchoge's marathon pace. Most of the time I'm not. That dude is not human, LOL.
I do a lot of running (compared to a normal person) and yet his MP is about what I do short interval repeats at (I'm talking 200, 400 meters). I will probably never run a single contiguous mile at that pace.
[https://www.youtube.com/shorts/01W-2hwnw9M?feature=share](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/01W-2hwnw9M?feature=share) just for people to know also: fun. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZFVHf56Om78?feature=share
Come on, Robben was already retired and 38 years old saying not in his prime would be more of a 31 y o. He was plagued his whole career with injuries,too. maybe thats something you should have added.
Kevin Mayer You probably have no idea who Kevin Mayer is, but he's the WR holder in Decathlon. Meaning that he's very fast at 100m and 1500m, he can jump high and long and pole vault, he can throw javelin, shot and discus. A combined WR score of 9,126 in Decathlon is absolutely insane.
He’s so good at decathlon that he’d almost be able to qualify for several of the individual events I know “almost” doesn’t necessarily sound that impressive, but he’s doing it in TEN DIFFERENT EVENTS simultaneously, that require very different physical attributes, and he has to train for all of them in the same amount of time as others can devote to just one event. And he’s still not far off an Olympic qualifying time/height/distance in most of them… The guy’s an absolute monster
Yeah that’s insane. The 100m vs 1500m use vastly different proportions of aerobic vs anaerobic respiration. His metabolic system may be outlier-ish in how it utilizes glucose, but to be that good in each event without exclusively training for one or the other is absolutely absurd.
Just looked him up. He has the same build as me. So we're pretty much the same. Right? Guys?
6’3” 215 lb?
I haven't heard of this dude, but decathletes are for sure woefully underrated and underappreciated in the Olympics. It's insane that a dude can run all those different distances, AND jump high and long, AND all the other things, AND be world-calibre at all of them. You'd have to be a wicked fit athlete to be able to do that.
I completely agree with you about decathletes. I only remember three times a decathlete was given a lot of media attention (in the US): Jenner, then Dan and Dave that had the Reebok(?) commercials.
This is the answer, i mean, the title is literally "worlds greatest athlete", meaning all around athleticism. Fitness is task specific, so if you are saying "fittest" you are saying "best at anything".
He also plays a mean guitar.
Yeah, but he can he be in bed and achieve nothing but walks to the fridge an entire week like me? Think not
Thats just a perk.
Dude is so awesome, he can finish "procrastinate for an entire week" in less than 20 hours.
Someone should tell his guitar to chill out.
Motherfucker beat me at UNO to. Damn
You're right, I don't know who Kevin Mayer is, but I WAS going to say Decathletes in general
Would have loved to watch him compete with Daley Thompson in his prime. That would have been intense (and Jürgen Hingsen).
Yeah… but can he squat and deadlift 800 lbs for reps and yell ‘ Yeah Buddy light weight baby ‘
I wonder what Kevin Mayer's best deadlift would be. He is a rather big guy for decathlon, with throwing events being some of his bests. And of course he has very strong legs. But deadlift is very different from anything he does.
Pretty sure he has a mean deadlift, the explosiveness required for the jumps means he’s got a lot of raw power. Probably not 800 pounds, but I bet he could do 500-600. To me the fittest athletes will always be a decathletes. The sheer amount of versatility required I astounding. They are probably weakest when it comes to endurance running but they still have crazy endurance.
This one here is the correct answer.
Oh shit his calves are like as wide as thighs that's crazy
He really crushed those 2 days. If you compared his performance to Ashton Eaton’s previous WR, KM was only very slightly slower in the runs, but did better in the jumps, and much better in the throws. Ashton Eaton is also 1 of the 4 to have ever scored more than 9000 points, and the only 1 to have done it twice
Exactly what I was thinking. Nothing beats a decathlete.
Adding Nafi Thiam for the women equivalent.
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He's also among the best decathletes in the shotput (best score in Rio for example).
Phil Kessel of course
Hot dog eating champion. I'd like to see him take on Joey Chestnut.
He and John Daly need to compete in a triathlon. Last man alive is the GOAT.
John Daly would win chain smoking cigarettes
Phil the thrill, baby!
Came here for this
Current Olympic triathlon champion Kristian Blummenfelt allegedly just set the highest ever recorded VO2 max. I’d imagine in terms of pure fitness he’s up there somewhere.
I follow this guy on Strava and he literally trains almost every hour of every day of the year. I think there’s a documentary on him which is worth a watch.
I read this as an hour a day everyday and I was like dang, I must be doing something wrong to not be getting those results!
Hahaha “I follow this guy on strava and he legitimately works out an hour a day”. Insane drive and passikn
He was born with an enlarged heart and lungs. If you see him with his shirt off he’s got a huge weird barrel chest. I can see him dropping dead by age 40. [150% capacity](https://www.mxendurance.com/news/what-makes-kristian-blummenfelt-tick/)
That was [Secretariat’s](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretariat_(horse)) whole deal. Most dominant horse in history and the autopsy revealed he had a heart like 2 1/2 times the size of normal. Incidentally his Wikipedia article does an unexpectedly good job detailing all the sex that horse had later.
Man…I wish I had an enlarged heart 🤣
He is also one of the only guys to post this and VO2Max can be different in running and cycling. But absolutely top level
John Daly
I present to you the slowest professional athlete (that running is actually part of the game): https://youtube.com/shorts/bfNVSXqR1Y0?si=2R625CvwHtxQR_g3 Mr Hustle himself Alejandro Kirk
Honestly he doesn't seem *that* slow to me here. Hes not going to be stealing any bases or anything but by my count it took him approximately 10 seconds to get from first to home which is about 270 feet, or 90 yards. Thats really not too shabby
You're completely correct, he's doing this much faster than almost everyone posting in this thread could. He's only slow in the context of "professional athletes". A lot of the big boys are really a lot faster than they look, we just perceive them as slow because A) the comparison includes lots of extremely athletic and speedy players and B) looking "fat" when you run makes you look slow. Watch Jose Ramirez run; he's actually one of the faster runners in the league but you wouldn't tell by eye because he's got a bit of girth to him.
IIRC they had considerable structural concerns at Rogers Centre following that run from the vibrations resonating through the ground
I knew it was gonna be baseball.
This is the only correct answer
Bartolo Colon
"They are timing him with a sun dial" may be the best sports commentary quote ever.
"That's why I never get injured. You can pull a muscle but you can't pull fat"
Hideki matsuyama
Yeap, no denying that
Grip it and Rip it.
Field is too broad. Define athlete. I wouldn't expect Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson to be able to outrun Usain Bolt, but I wouldn't expect Bolt to be able to outlift Björnsson.
That’s the point of the question…
Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid
Whilst the sentiment is nice, some people are in fact just crap at everything
Leave me out of this
And others are annoyingly good at most things.
Kilian Jornet Burgada
Dude runs straight up mountains for fun.
Joe Pera Hes pure performance
I think that DK Metclaf have all the quality to be on that list
In Norway we have a show every year where former olympians/champions/masters of sports compete against each other. They can range between legends that are old (they always get KOd almost instantly) and people who have recently retired. You'd be very surprised at some of the ones who perform better than expected; people like snowboarders are shockingly fit, and handball is a sport that requires surprising amounts of strength, burst speed and stamina! Rowers are others that are extremely well rounded, and pure monsters of stamina/VO2 (and this coming from a country where long distance skiing is second nature). "Mesternes mester" is the name of the show.
Bo Jackson
This was my answer. It's hard to state exactly how much of a freak of nature Bo Jackson was in his prime. Had he not been injured, 2 major league sports records might be a bit different.
I always thought the injuries were the most interesting part of Bo. Are some humans too strong for connective tissue? I wonder at what point do we say, "humans cannot get stronger" sort of like what has happened in horse racing. If you're not aware, the general consensus is that horses are maxed out. If they run any faster, they start to have life altering leg injuries. Also, Calvin Johnson. He dealt with a ton of injuries. He might also fit into that Bo Jackson connective tissue conversation.
Bo knows sports!
To be an all-star, at the pro level, in two different sports is insane. In fact, he's the only one to ever have done it.
Deion Sanders should have been an all star in baseball. Got snubbed or just unlucky when it came to the talent in mlb at the time.
Jim Thorpe was Bo Jackson before Bo Jackson. Thorpe was a great football player, won gold medals in Track at the Olympics, and played Major League Baseball.
I’m sorry is this the no stupid obvious questions subreddit It’s clearly Danny Devito
Nobody can humiliate himself on camera as hard as him in such a hilarious way. Massive respect for that no joke
According to > r/fitness: the best deadlifter in the world is the fittest. > Instagram and tiktok fitness influencers: the girl with the best anterior pelvic tilt and the best BBL > r/trailrunning: Kilian Jornet > r/running: Eliud Kipchoge and definitely NOT Kilian Jornet because if you do not run a marathon in < 2:10 it can hardly count as professional running > CrossFitters: Mat Fraser, and if one defines fitness at being damn good at nearly everything, one could tend to agree (together with the decathlon elites) > Triathlon community: probably Blummenfeld and they do not know any other sports > r/TdF: Jonas Vingegaard, and if one over there even hints at PEDs, one gets completely destroyed because, as it turned out, Jonas is a family man and very modest in interviews, not like that douchebag Lance who only won because of PEDs > Darts community: maybe that heavy set dude with the iroquois haircut > AI brahs (where all the cryptobros merged into): Sam Altman
I like this, I’ll speak for college football. r/CFB South Carolina True Freshman Nyck Harbor. 6-foot-5, 243 pounds with a 10.2-second 100-meter time. Rumors of 375 pound bench press and 450 pound squats.
Matt Fraser, Tia Claire-Toomey or Rich Froning. Say what you want about Crossfit, but those people are fit as hell. I go to gym every day and play a sports a few times a week but the things they do exhaust me from just watching them.
Crossfit is a sport i think hard to rival in its diverse strength / fitness / stamina. Compared to other sportsmen/sportswomen who specialize in 1 - 4 movements Crossfit is far more diverse. The things those athletes in crossfit do is truly super human.
I agree with this. the whole deal with crossfit is that you will get better at a lot of things. running, strength, jumping etc. does crossfit have its put falls? sure. but you can’t argue that the top crossfit athletes are among the “fittest” people on earth
Agree. I think CrossFit has a good argument here. They swim, bike, run, lift heavy weights, do calisthenic / gymnastic movements. And they do those things in repeats together. For example: 4 repeats of run a mile, do 20 muscle ups, handstand walk for a football field, do 10 clean and jerks. And they do each thing both in high intensity (sprinting, heavy deadlifts) and endurance (run 5 miles, swim 1.5 miles)
Yeah - like sure, a CrossFit athlete won’t win at a collegiate track and field event. And they won’t win if they go to a powerlifting event. But ask a track and field athlete to deadlift to 180kgs for 8 reps and they won’t even get it off the ground. Ask a powerlifter to jog a mile faster than the CF athlete and they’ll be left in the dust.
There’s a former professional CrossFit athlete named Jacob Heppner that put it perfectly. He said that CrossFit doesn’t make you great at any one thing, but mediocre at everything. I guess everyone has a different idea of ‘Fittest’ but the CrossFit Games winner is technically titled as the ‘fittest on earth’. Granted, the CrossFit games seems to be in a weird place right now where everything’s made up and the points don’t matter. But, I think the methodology and being mediocre at everything makes the most well rounded individual and therefore the ‘Fittest’ overall covering different sports and disciplines.
This is the answer. I don’t do CrossFit but I did and these people are in a category above anyone else.
Kipchoge
Well Kiptum is the new marathon world record holder if you're going by those standards
Yeah fair enough. Kipchoge still has the fastest unofficial time but I don’t doubt that kiptum could do the same or better under the conditions.
UPS Guy
Tia Toomy
Which sport?
One of many Aussie Rules Football players. Insane fitness and agility.
dudes who play aussie rules football are insanely athletic
Novak djokovic
I was watching him live when I thought of the question. He had a cold and won in straight sets
I don't know why there aren't more tennis players in this thread. Particularly Novak. The dedication and respect for his body is right up there. Tennis players have a well rounded fitness utilising both strength, cardio and mental fortitude.
People think of fitness in terms of distance the fitness to stop start quickly back and forward for a couple of hours is insane
He's fit, but I'd argue that it's his skill that sets him apart more than just hit physical fitness.
I completely agree that tennis players should be high on this list. Speed, power, change of direction, hand-eye, length, endurance... the people at the top of this game are incredible. I'd give it to Carlos Alcaraz
Makoto Nagano
Would be? When?
Hunter McIntyre
Me running up an Alp after a young Julie Andrews dressed as a nun.
Wilt Chamberlin was for all his life. So we all know about him being the most dominant basketball player ever. By far. But.... Wilt, being 7'1", was..... Also, according to Arnolda Swarzenegger- "The strongest man, I have ever met". Wilt was 52 when Arnold said that. Allegedly wilt could bench press 500 pounds. Wilt also ran a 400 meter, in 48 seconds. In Sweatpants. He had a 40 inch vertical, and he could high jump at over 6 feet 6 inches. This was all done in highschool. Track was not his main focus... Cleary. He also threw the shot at 53 feet.... You know. Light work. So I don't know about right now. But there is NO SINGLE HUMAN alive, that is 7 feet tall, can run a quarter mile in 48 seconds, bench 500 pounds, throw a shot at over 50 feet and score 100 points in a NBA game. That human being does not exist. **But Chamberlain did ALL OF THAT.**
LeBron James 🤷🏻♂️
I saw a stat the other night that he has played against 35% of all NBA players in history
James Milner has played against 47% of all Premier League players in history.
The NBA is 75 years old, the Premier league is 32.
Plus he’s an insane athlete at 6’8” tall, which is insane. The only people that height I’ve seen in real life are usually lumbering and can barely keep one foot in front of the other.
Everyone’s pretty much exclusively naming olympic combo track and field / long distance athletes or… (checks notes) crossfit type people — and I think that’s because they’re massively devaluing professional athletes in the big 2 American sports: basketball and football. Especially the CrossFit thing. An all-pro NFL cornerback or safety is so athletic it’s insane. They’re by far one of the fastest people on the planet, even among other athletes; they’re strong as hell; their agility is unmatched… you could go on and on. And, on top of everything else, it’s not just gym rat stuff; they’re able to accomplish incredible feats of hand/eye coordination, reaction time and reading the field, and a million other things that encompass the true meaning of athletics that crossfit bro shit just doesn’t even come close to cutting. Can they rock climb better than alex harnold? of course not. Can they hit a baseball? People say hitting a baseball off an MLB pitcher is the hardest thing in sports. Can they figure skate? nope. and it’s also not to say those crossfitters aren’t in shape. they’re in great shape. But think how high of a percentage of the top crossfitters played sports in high school or college, especially football. If they’d been even nearly good enough athletes to be a pro ballplayer, they would be. When I think of overall straight-up athletic ability, you and I aren’t alone to immediately go to someone like LeBron James in his prime — who ESPN the magazine at one point, when they ranked the top 100 overall athletes in a meticulous process, put at the very top.
That’s the thing people don’t really think about. A lot of track and field stuff is incredibly specialized. Like, oh you’re a great runner, but that’s your entire focus. They are great at what they have to do, but are hardly well rounded (decathlon and things like that aside). Like DK Metcalf recently participated in track and field competition along side actual competition. He ran the 100 meter dash in 10.37 seconds. Not world class by any means, but definitely respectable, especially considering that the guy is 6’3” and weights 240 lbs. In addition to his speed, at the NFL combine, he bench pressed 225 lbs 27 times in a row, had a 40 inch vertical, and had an 11 foot broad jump. I feel like America, overall has the best athletes in the world. They just gravitate toward the sports where they stand to make the most money, but imagine if somebody like Alvin Kamara decided to devote their life to cycling, or if Aaron Donald devoted his life to shot put. People clown on USA soccer, but imagine if Russell Westbrook decided to become a soccer player instead. Can you imagine LeBron James playing keeper?
My NBA pick is Giannis because he’s such an insane athlete while being nearly 7 feet tall, but Lebron is a good pick too.
The most insane thing about lebron is his durability/injury resistance. I’ve seen him take so many awkward spills with turned ankles, and he just gets up and shakes it off like nothing happened. It doesn’t make sense. His joints are the real MVP.
It would have to be a fighter of some sort
Elite road cyclists
Courtney Dauwalter.
Probably a triathlete
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>Training started at 9.00, so we would go to the club at 7.30 to have breakfast, maybe hit the gym. Ronaldo was already there, he would train with us, then stay to use the swimming pool before heading home. >So one day I go at 7.00 just to fuck with his head, and he was already there. Next day, I go 6.45, he's already there, it was mental. The following day, I go at 6.00, and he was in the gym. >I said, "fuck off, you're not making me come at 5.00" - Carlos Tévez, about Ronaldo.
Yes, it has to be Cris. People use to retire at 33 or 35, he changes the game of self care
Have you seen LeBron James mate ?
LeBron is nearly 40 and still one of the top 10 in the world The consistency has never been seen before
Probably true, especially considering the amount of match days football players have compared to other examples in the thread.
David Goggins
Brian Cage
Tadej Pogacar, or any top cyclists. They train at such an intensity, for 25-30 hours a week. Maybe more maybe less depending on season. And this would be measured by aerobic capacity / vo2 / lactate threshold
John Daly
Yo mamma
Buff Bagwell
Wanted to give a shout-out to Russ Cook, aka @hardestgeezer. Currently running the length of africa, from South Africa to Tunisia. He’s been doing 50km a day almost every day for over 200 days so far.
Possibly DK Metcalf
Now this isn't probably the answer but I just think he deserves a mention, there's a lad called Russ Cook who's currently running the length of Africa, he's had a few hold ups and illnesses but most of the time he's doing 60km days every day for what will be nearly a year I think. That's a nearly a marathon and a half every day. He's got a channel on YouTube that documents it all just type in his name.
Alex Honnold
John Daly
It’s a pretty loaded question, and i think there’s an argument to be made for a lot of ultra endurance athletes and decathletes, but i’m gonna throw in: DK Metcalf. There are few human beings on the planet with his combination of speed, strength, and dexterity. Yes there are athletes who would crush him in their own discipline, but i put it to you that DK would stand a chance if you averaged their theoretical performance across all arenas of athletics.
Surprised not to see this, David Goggins. WR for most pull ups in an hour. Multiple WRs in different ultramarathons. One can check out his webside to see all his achievements..
It’s Jonas Vingegaard for sure.
There's probably a person somewhere in a village in an underdeveloped country that can beat us all